Friday, April 29, 2016

Mike Duffy is back
at work as a senator after a three-year expulsion now that he was cleared of 31
charges of defrauding the Canadian government.

Judge Charles
Vaillancourt, in a four-hour verdict, had harsh words for former Prime Minister
Stephen Harper’s office and its conduct over the expenses scandal involving
Duffy, 69.

The ruling after a
62-day trial took issue with the prosecution’s contention that the former TV
broadcaster had deliberately defrauded taxpayers by submitting claims for
disputed housing, office and travel expenses.

Vaillancourt was
extremely critical that Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, gave
Duffy $90,000 to repay his living expenses to try to defuse the controversy.

“The political,
covert, relentless, unfolding of events is mind boggling and shocking,”
Vaillancourt said, acquitting Duffy of all counts of fraud, breach of trust and
bribery.

Lawyer Donald Bayne
said that Duffy has been subjected to “more public humiliation than probably
any Canadian in history.”

Senator Patrick
Brazeau faces a fraud and breach of trust trial this year while senator Pamela
Wallin’s expenses continue to be examined by the police. Seven other senators
are being asked to repay a total of $528,000 in disputed expenses.

Monday, April 18, 2016

The Liberal
government’s spending plans are already proving to be a boost for the Canadian economy.

The Bank
of Canada kept its trend-setting interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent while
predicting economic growth as shown by the gross domestic product to rise by
1.7 percent this year, up 0.3 percent from an earlier prediction.

The
central bank noted this was due to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government
deciding to invest $25 billion in additional spending over the next two years
for such things as infrastructure projects.

The
spending was included in the recent federal budget that projected a deficit of
$110 billion over five years while the previous Conservative government was reducing
spending to avoid going into the red.

“The mix
of policies that we have today is a more favorable one for economic growth than
what we had before," bank Governor Stephen Poloz said.

Spending
by the government is helping to counter lower oil prices affecting the Canadian
economy’s commodity-abundant provinces.

The dollar
dropped from a seven-month high topping 78 cents U.S. with news of the key
interest rate remaining steady and lower oil and gold prices.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Canadians might
want to prepare to welcome millions of fleeing Americans should polls be
correct that Donald Trump might win the presidency.

A survey conducted
by Vox.com of 2,000 registered voters showed 28 percent claimed they’d likely
“consider moving to another country, such as Canada” with a Trump victory.

And, they wouldn’t
be hampered by a large wall at the border between the U.S. and Canada.

Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau said claims of Americans wanting to move to Canada occur after
every U.S. election.

It happened,
however, when George W. Bush was elected in 2004, with immigration to Canada
doubling by 34,000 Americans in a decade.

With Trump’s
campaign promises and popularity, searches online about “how to move to Canada”
have surged, according to Simon Rogers of Google.

The Canadian technology
industry that has long lost talented workers to the U.S. is fighting back seeking
Silicon Valley, California talent over concerns about Trump.

Sortable, a
Kitchener, Ontario tech company, has been running Facebook ads featuring a
photo of Trump with the tag line: “Thinking of moving to Canada? Sortable is
hiring.” http://sortable.com/careers-at-sortable/

Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia radio host Rob Calabrese has set up a website called
“CapeBretonIfDonaldTrumpWins,” offering to provide a new home for anyone
seeking refuge.